


Love, the End of the World, and Other Natural Disasters

by mendeshoney



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Angst, Break Up, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-05 19:46:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21214067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mendeshoney/pseuds/mendeshoney
Summary: The story of a couple’s break up through the eyes of their friends.





	Love, the End of the World, and Other Natural Disasters

##  **~ Seth.**

Screaming.

Seth heard screaming and stopped in his tracks, staring at the door in front of him with a confused look on his face, hand still hovered above the wood, ready to knock.

He figured at first maybe he misheard. Maybe he was just hearing the TV, and it was super loud. Josh would blast it sometimes if you weren’t home, calling it white noise for him to work out to. He hoped it was the TV.

But it wasn’t.

He heard you first. Your choked up voice and the recognizable sound of you crying. You were screaming and he couldn’t make out the exact words from his position, but he suspected it wasn’t good.

And his suspicions were confirmed when he heard Josh. Seth had never heard his friend yell like that in his life, and it shocked him to know he was yelling at you like that.

Seth backed away from the door like he’d been burned. He debated with himself for a good five minutes on if he should knock, if he should intervene and put a stop to all of this and find out what the hell was so _wrong._

But he couldn’t. He didn’t know if he could bear to know the truth of what was happening.

So he made his way back to the car, and drove away, the sound of your crying echoing guiltily in his mind.

##  **~ Boone.**

Boone frowned when he found you sitting by yourself.

He was on his way out of the arena, ready to head home and get some much needed rest after the game when he caught you sitting alone on a bench before the team carpark.

Even under the shitty lighting he could see that you were crying into your hands, your “Anderson” jersey tossed carelessly beside you in a pathetic heap.

So Seth was right.

Whatever was going on was _bad_.

And Boone, he can admit he’s not really good with _emotions_, but when it comes to you, you, who he’s known since high school, he knows the best way to get you out of a funk is to make you laugh.

So he tries.

“I haven’t seen you cry like that since that stupid dog movie.”

You look up in surprise, clearly not expecting to be discovered in such a state. But when his words, register, you manage a small smile.

“It wasn’t stupid.” You say, trying to sound lighthearted. It doesn’t work. Boone sees right through you.

“What happened? Where’s Josh?” As he asks, his head is on a swivel, searching for his teammate. Fear starts to creep into Boone’s veins. Did one of the other girls say something mean to you? Did an arena staff piss you off? Did some creep try to-

“We got into a fight and he left me here.”

Boone’s heart stops._ Josh did **what**_?

There’s about a hundred things Boone wants to say right now, but he looks at you and knows you don’t need to hear it. If he knows anything about you, it’s that right now, you just need a friend.

“I’ll take you home.” He says. “My couch isn’t exactly comfortable, but for you I’ll sleep on it.”

“I don’t want to impose.” You say, hesitating. “I can call an Uber, stay at a friends’ place.”

“Consider me your Uber _and_ friend, then.” He says, holding out his hand. “C’mon, let’s go.”

You sigh, but take his hand.

Boone takes note of the fact that you leave Josh’s jersey behind, but says nothing.

##  **~ Pierre.**

He’d always been jealous of Josh.

Jealous that Josh could get a pretty girl like you and keep you around. Pierre didn’t exactly have the best luck with women to begin with. And you were beautiful, and kind, and sweet, and Pierre isn’t ashamed to admit he’d looked at you a little too long before.

So when Seth and Boone thought something was wrong, Pierre didn’t see the harm in going to your house to check in on you. He thought Josh would be out, thought he’d be able to comfort you and get to the bottom of all of this.

But instead, Josh was home, and you were nowhere to be seen.

“What’s up man?” Josh greets, inviting his teammate inside.

“I could ask you the same thing.” Pierre says, gesturing around the living room. You normally keep a clean house, but it looks like a bomb went off inside.

Josh shrugs. “Dumb shit. We got into a fight.”

“Did she throw this at you?” Pierre asks, pointing in disbelief to the broken lamp that lay on the floor.

“Nah.” Josh shakes his head, and Pierre frowns.

“Did_ you _throw this at _her_?”

“What?!” Josh asks, incredulous. “Absolutely not. She pissed me off when she stormed out because she wouldn’t listen, so I got pissed off and knocked it over. It was an accident.”

Pierre highly doubts that.

“I don’t want to talk about that right now.” Josh says, waving his hand dismissively. “Want a beer?”

Pierre nods. Josh heads to the kitchen and Pierre takes out his phone, texting Seth.

_It’s worse than you thought._

He snaps a picture of the lamp, sending it off as proof. He finds a broken picture frame on the floor, and bends down. It’s a photo from last Halloween, with you, Josh, Pierre, Seth, Zach, Odette, Nick, and his wife. Pierre’s arm is around you shoulders and Josh’s arm is around your waist. You looked so good that night in your costume, and Pierre remembers not being able to keep his eyes off of you the whole night.

He snaps a picture of that, too, sending it to Seth for good measure.

_Where is she?_ Seth responds.

_No idea. _Pierre says._ But I bet as long as she’s far away from him, she’s fine._

##  **~ Zach and Odette.**

Odette poked him in the side, and Zach’s eyes snapped to the entry of the diner.

“She’s been crying.”

Zach frowns. He looks at your disheveled state and how quickly you try to wipe your tears away. “And he’s not with her.”

Odette shakes her head disapprovingly. “And you said Seth and Boone were overreacting.”

Zach and Odette were supposed to be meeting you and Josh this morning for your usual bi-weekly couples brunch. Normally you and Josh were there first and ordered for the four of you, but Zach and Odette knew something was off when they arrived to the diner and the usual booth you all sat in was empty.

They’d ordered this time, but then sat around for twenty minutes. Odette said it was unusual. She brought up what Seth had said about going to their house and hearing them yelling.

She also remembered Boone mentioning something about the game last week. When Odette had left with Zach she saw you and Josh talking, but nothing seemed off, so they left. Boone said it was bad then, too.

“You need to stop ignoring your friends when they tell you important things.” Odette tells Zach.

She stands from the booth and reaches you, ushering you toward the bathroom.

You break down when she locks the door behind you both, averting her eyes.

“What happened?” Odette asks.

“I don’t know.” You say, voice cracking as more tears fall. “I don’t know, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“How about you wash your face, and you and I can go have a girls day?” She suggests.

You nod, turning toward the sink.

Odette whips out her phone, texting Zach.

_I’m taking her to make her feel better. _She says. _You’d better find your teammate and figure out what the fuck is going on._

##  **~ Max.**

The last time he saw Josh was at a wedding. You were at home with your family, so you couldn’t be Josh’s date, and he wouldn’t shut up about how much he missed you and couldn’t wait to get home.

And now, Josh looks like shit.

He’s FaceTiming Max, leaning against his couch while Max tries to finish his work out.

“And then she slammed the door in my face, can you believe that?” Josh harrumphs.

Max tries to focus on the weights in his hands, trying not to drop them. “I mean,” he starts. “It doesn’t sound like a good situation.”

“It’s not.” Josh agrees. Max glances at the screen briefly and frowns, staring back at the wall in front of him.

“Are you okay, dude?” Max asks. He’s genuinely concerned. He’s known Josh for a long time and knows this rough patch he’s been going through with you hasn’t been easy.

“I don’t know.” Josh says quietly. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“What do you want to do?” Max asks.

“I don’t want to lose her.”

Max puts down his weights and looks at his phone. From everything Josh has told him about your fights, about how he feels and how you feel, about the terribleness of all of it, Max feels a small knot in his stomach.

He likes you. You’re probably the only girlfriend Josh has had that he likes. You’re good for him and good to him and Max knows he’s not the only one of Josh’s friends who approves of you. Max doesn’t want to see Josh lose a good girl like you, but…

“I don’t know man.” Max says. “From what you’ve told me, it sounds like you’ve already lost her.”

##  **~ Dylan.**

Dylan wasn’t really close with you and Josh to begin with, but he hung around sometimes when he was in town to visit Zach. And during those times he knew one thing - you and Josh were tighter than ever.

The only other couples he knew to be so in love were his parents and grandparents. Zach and Odette qualified too, he supposed, but it wasn’t the same. 

He remembers his first time meeting you it was because he was coming into town and going partying with everyone. He got absolutely hammered and couldn’t find Zach - his ride home - because he fucked off somewhere with Odette and completely forgot Dylan was staying at his place.

You swooped in, instructing Josh to bring Dylan to the car so you could bring him home. Dylan had the worst hangover the following morning, and felt slightly scared at being in an unfamiliar room, but then he could smell something _amazing _and followed it out to the kitchen.

He found you standing there in a way too big white shirt, black sweatpants that hung way too low on your hips, hair tangled in a messy bun as you were elbow deep in mixing a giant bowl of waffle batter.

You smiled at him, and gestures with your chin to the dining table where a plate had already been made for him, along with a tall glass of orange juice, hot cup of coffee, and a bottle of Advil.

A blessing. He’d called you a blessing that morning as he sat down to his breakfast, and Josh had seemingly appeared from out of nowhere, wrapping his arms around your waist and saying “isn’t she though?”

So he was surprised when Zach called him late one night, voice muffled slightly when he said “Dude, are you hearing this?”

Dylan listened for a second as Zach’s voice dropped out and Josh’s unmistakable yelling came through the phone. Dylan’s heard Josh yell plenty of times on the ice, but not like this.

“Why can’t you just listen to me?!” He heard.

And then Dylan heard you. “I don’t have to if I don’t want to! There’s nothing you have to say that I want to hear anyway!”

There was more yelling, some shuffling, and then Zach came back.

“Dude.” Dylan said. “What the fuck is happening?”

“They’ve been locked in a bathroom in this club for the past twenty minutes just screaming at each other. I don’t know what to do. Odette keeps telling me to put a stop to it but I don’t know what to do?”

“What are they even fighting about?” Dylan asks. He thinks of how in love you both were, how since the first time he met you both he’s been jealous of your relationship and how close you were, how he wanted something like that.

He didn’t know you both very well, but he knew a love like that was once in a lifetime.

“I don’t think they’re just fighting.” Zach says. “I think they’re _breaking up_.”

_~~~_

##  _Two Years Later._

##  **~ You.**

There’s a small tap on your shoulder and you turn around, smile on your face, ready to greet who you assume is a customer.

Except it’s not.

“Josh?” Your voice is quiet, and you almost drop the bouquet of flowers in your hands.

He smiles softly, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Hey.” 

You swallow thickly, eyeing him once. He looks…different. Different from what you remember, but still the same.

“What are you doing here?”

“I thought I saw you through the window. I had to come in just to be sure. It’s so good to see you again.”

You nod. “It’s uh…good to see you again too.”

There’s an awkward pause, and then Josh gestures over his shoulder. “Did you uh…can we talk?”

You nod, getting the attention of your co-worker and letting her know you’d be heading toward the back. She nods once, and you lead Josh back to your little office.

“This business yours?” He asks.

“Yeah.” You say, “it is.”

“I’m proud of you.” He says, and you turn to look at him with a raised brow.

“What?” He asks.

“Why are you here?” You ask.

He looks confused. “I saw you through-“

“Yeah. Through the window. I mean why are you _here, _why do you want to talk?”

He sighs. The tension hangs in the air and suddenly you feel like you’re transported back to the living room you once shared, preparing yourself for another fight. 

“Why’d you leave like that?” He asks. His voice is quiet, and you know he’s trying his best to sound calm, collected, but the pain behind it is louder than anything.

You shrug. Maybe it’s heartless, but you’ve grown too much, and you don’t really care anymore. 

“I didn’t know what else to do.” You say honestly. It may be shitty, but it was still the truth. “It wasn’t just you. There were a lot of things going on then that made me feel like I was trapped. All these expectations, these things…and you and I, it was easy, there weren’t any expectations and then…” your voice trails off, realizing nothing you say is going to make this better for him. 

“Then there were.” He offers softly. Recalling the way that he insisted on more. The ultimatums he threw in your face. Shoving jobs at you. Showing you listings. Talking about marriage, kids. Demanding an answer. They were things you wanted but you weren’t ready for. 

Another trap.

Which, he knows you. He knows you’re not afraid of commitment because you were committed to him and the little relationship you’d built. But the two of you had always been an easy thing. No demands. No obligations. Just love.

And then when everything around you was demanding things from you - telling you what to do, who to be, how and what to feel, how and what to think, what you should and shouldn’t do, what you should and shouldn’t be proud of, trapping you in these ridiculous expectations, talking to you in a way that made you question if they were actually talking to you or their images and expectations of you - it was only a matter of time until your relationship became affected too. 

And you didn’t know how to deal with it. You didn’t want to deal with it. You were sick of people trying to shove you into this box, trying to parade you around, make you into something you weren’t and you didn’t feel like being. 

Impostor syndrome, you remember. It fit the bill.

You weren’t the “Miss Perfect” everyone thought you were. And you _never_ would be.

So you left. Because what other choice did you have?

You needed space. Needed to feel like you were your own human being instead of everyone else’s toy to control and dictate. And you knew it wouldn’t make sense to anyone at all. You felt guilty because they felt angry, because they didn’t and wouldn’t understand, but that guilt subsided quickly. 

You felt angry now, even, that he could confront you about this, because you knew no matter what you said he’d probably still blame you. 

It wouldn’t be any surprise. People take and take and take and they don’t think to check on the person they take from. You had been pushed to your limit and when you finally pushed back people acted like you were the problem. 

It wasn’t that you weren’t good at standing up for yourself. You felt like before you’d left, you had screamed and screamed and screamed till you were blue in the face and your throat was raw. 

But nobody listened. No one cared. You told them you were stressed, told them you felt like no one cared about you or what you wanted. And you were right. They didn’t. 

So you left, buried your past and moved on.

The only reason you came back was because your parents were selling the house and wanted you to go through your old stuff. But you knew you didn’t want any of it, you had only came back to tell them they could burn everything, let you go and leave you alone.

And you definitely didn’t want to run into your ex. Yet here you were. 

“I was sick of feeling like that.” You tell him. “I didn’t want to deal with it, and I realized that I didn’t have to. So I left.”

“But you…I mean the fight we had. The things we said…” he shakes his head. “The things that I said to you.”

You wave it off. “So what? You meant them. Even if you say you didn’t, a part of you meant those things.”

His eyes are sad when they stare at you. You can see the shame in his eyes, because you both know you’re right. Even if he said some terrible things, he meant them. And when you defended yourself, you meant those words too. 

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He supplies. 

“It’s in the past now.” 

“It is?” He looks hurt. There’s a flood of guilt and sadness that runs through you because you finally understand why he approached you, why he seemed slightly excited to see you again.

He wanted another chance. To see if you could work again. But you didn’t think you could give him that. 

You nod, “It is. I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. I wish I listened to you.”

You can’t help but smile softly at him. You reach up on your tip toes and kiss his cheek, figuring you could at least give him that. 

“It’s in the past now, Josh.” You repeat. “It’s okay.”

“I’m sorry.” 

“I’m sorry too.”

He can’t help himself as he pulls you into his arms for one last hug, one last chance to be close to you. And you give him that, too.

“I’ll see you around?”

You nod. “We’ll see.”


End file.
